Jun 11, 2020 09:22 AM
(This post was last modified: Jun 12, 2020 02:36 AM by C C.)
"Reality is driving the satire websites out of business." --P.K. Noyle
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/natio...317240002/
EXCERPTS: In Minneapolis, a veto-proof majority of the City Council committed to dismantling its police department [...] "It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe," council President Lisa Bender said.
[...] "It’s not just about taking away money from the police, it’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities. Communities that have been deeply divested from, communities that, some have never felt the impact of having true resources. And so we have to reconsider what we’re resourcing. I've been saying we have an economy of punishment over an economy of care," Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, told WBUR.
[...] MPD150, a Minneapolis-based initiative ... wrote that shifting police responsibilities is central to the defund the police movement. ... Proponents of defunding police say policing in America has a long history of disproportionate harm to communities of color. ... Alex S. Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College who wrote the book "The End of Policing," explained to NPR that there is a "myth" that police are politically neutral and enforce laws to benefit everyone equally.
Vitale argued that one of the biggest problems with policing in recent decades is that law enforcement has played an expanding role in addressing societal problems. Police are in schools, often respond to drug overdoses or mental health crises and clear homeless encampments in cities. Vitale said that instead of addressing the root causes of these problems, police are used to "criminalize" these people. "This is perverse and unjust. So then it places police in this completely untenable situation, because they completely lack the tools to make this problem any better," Vitale told NPR.
According to MPD150, instead of "strangers armed with guns, who very likely do not live in the neighborhoods they’re patrolling," it should be social workers, mental health care providers and victim or survivor advocates, among others, who address the problems police are called to handle.
In some cases, police officers themselves have agreed that the role they play in society is beyond what the traditional scope of law enforcement should be. [...] "We are asking cops to do too much in this country ... Every societal failure, we put it off on cops." ... "After 9/11, police departments, particularly in large cities, are expected to commit resources to preventing terrorism. We are expected now to deal with cyber crime and the opioid crisis. Police are being expected to be better trained to deal with emotionally disturbed people on the street. We are asking police officers in the 21st century to be almost doctors."
[...] D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham warned that underfunding a police department could cause an increase in excess force by police officers. "The number one thing that contributes to excessive force in any police agency is when you underfund it. If you underfund a police agency, it impacts training, it impacts hiring, it impacts your ability to develop good leaders," Newsham told "The Kojo Nnamdi Show."
Patrisse Cullors told WBUR that Black Lives Matter and other groups have worked on police reforms for years, yet black Americans are still being disproportionately killed or harmed by police. [2018 FBI murder statistics].
Detractors of the defund movement expressed concern that it would lead to increased crime. [...] "Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for backup won’t get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete," the union’s board said in a statement last week.
Proponents of the movement say the reallocated funding to address other social needs would reduce crime. "By shifting money away from the police and toward services that actually meet those needs, we’ll be able to get to a place where people won’t need to rob banks," MPD150 wrote on its website... (MORE - details)
RELATED: Minneapolis leaders want to ‘dismantle’ police departments despite 551 rapes in 2019
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/natio...317240002/
EXCERPTS: In Minneapolis, a veto-proof majority of the City Council committed to dismantling its police department [...] "It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe," council President Lisa Bender said.
[...] "It’s not just about taking away money from the police, it’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities. Communities that have been deeply divested from, communities that, some have never felt the impact of having true resources. And so we have to reconsider what we’re resourcing. I've been saying we have an economy of punishment over an economy of care," Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, told WBUR.
[...] MPD150, a Minneapolis-based initiative ... wrote that shifting police responsibilities is central to the defund the police movement. ... Proponents of defunding police say policing in America has a long history of disproportionate harm to communities of color. ... Alex S. Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College who wrote the book "The End of Policing," explained to NPR that there is a "myth" that police are politically neutral and enforce laws to benefit everyone equally.
Vitale argued that one of the biggest problems with policing in recent decades is that law enforcement has played an expanding role in addressing societal problems. Police are in schools, often respond to drug overdoses or mental health crises and clear homeless encampments in cities. Vitale said that instead of addressing the root causes of these problems, police are used to "criminalize" these people. "This is perverse and unjust. So then it places police in this completely untenable situation, because they completely lack the tools to make this problem any better," Vitale told NPR.
According to MPD150, instead of "strangers armed with guns, who very likely do not live in the neighborhoods they’re patrolling," it should be social workers, mental health care providers and victim or survivor advocates, among others, who address the problems police are called to handle.
In some cases, police officers themselves have agreed that the role they play in society is beyond what the traditional scope of law enforcement should be. [...] "We are asking cops to do too much in this country ... Every societal failure, we put it off on cops." ... "After 9/11, police departments, particularly in large cities, are expected to commit resources to preventing terrorism. We are expected now to deal with cyber crime and the opioid crisis. Police are being expected to be better trained to deal with emotionally disturbed people on the street. We are asking police officers in the 21st century to be almost doctors."
[...] D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham warned that underfunding a police department could cause an increase in excess force by police officers. "The number one thing that contributes to excessive force in any police agency is when you underfund it. If you underfund a police agency, it impacts training, it impacts hiring, it impacts your ability to develop good leaders," Newsham told "The Kojo Nnamdi Show."
Patrisse Cullors told WBUR that Black Lives Matter and other groups have worked on police reforms for years, yet black Americans are still being disproportionately killed or harmed by police. [2018 FBI murder statistics].
Detractors of the defund movement expressed concern that it would lead to increased crime. [...] "Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for backup won’t get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete," the union’s board said in a statement last week.
Proponents of the movement say the reallocated funding to address other social needs would reduce crime. "By shifting money away from the police and toward services that actually meet those needs, we’ll be able to get to a place where people won’t need to rob banks," MPD150 wrote on its website... (MORE - details)
RELATED: Minneapolis leaders want to ‘dismantle’ police departments despite 551 rapes in 2019
